Hall of Fame

1990 – 2020

For the past 30 years, we have been passionate about finding and supporting musicians from around Australia through the National Campus Music Competition.

While taking the major prize is highly esteemed, the Competition Hall of Fame features a number of impressive Australian artists who were able to use the competition as a stepping-stone regardless of whether they took out the top spot, or not.

Eskimo Joe

Ball Park Music

Hockey Dad

Peking Duck (as Rubycon)

Bec Sandridge

Jebediah

Spiderbait

The Jezabels

george

Moaning Lisa

The Vines

Jones the Cat

Spacey Jane

Frenzal Rhomb

Augie March

The Vasco Era

Gyroscope

Karnivool

78 Saab

The Mavis’

Our History

The competition was founded in 1990 by a group of dedicated University Activity Officers who collaborated and volunteered their time to create a program for nurturing young artists which lacking at the time. Through the creation of the Australasian Association for Campus Activities (AACA), the competition was run by volunteer members for 26 years, at which point AACA was dissolved. It was at this time in 2016 that the competition, along with others, were taken on by ‘sister-organisation’ the Tertiary Access Group (TAG), which allowed dedicated financial and operational resources to ensure that the prestigious program would continue for years to come.

The National Campus Music Comp has seen a number of formats across the decades and continues to evolve with trends and technologies to remain relevant in the market. Until recent years, the competition was run in a ‘live’ format which saw campus heats, followed by Regional and State Finals and the culmination of the competition being a live National Final which rotated between states and cities. More recently, the competition has been largely facilitated online with a panel of high-profile industry judges selecting finalists based on their submitted profile and the public voting to determine the Wildcard entrant, who are all transported to Sydney for an exclusive industry mentoring experience plus live final to determine one winner.

As we move forward, in recognition of our 30th birthday, the 2020 competition format will be less about competing and more about celebrating. As such, we are moving away from a major prize for one artist, and offer a wide range of opportunities throughout the year to recognise the talent that we are seeing across our campuses. There is a strong focus on increasing the number of live performance opportunities in our 30th year, and we are excited to be able to continue to deliver life-changing experiences to talented tertiary students.